The President, Major Genera Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, on Friday morning, exchanged Sallah pleasantries in a phone call marking the end of the Ramadan fast.
“Both leaders thanked God Almighty for seeing this day and prayed for the stability and the wellbeing of the nation,” read a statement signed late Friday by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
In the statement titled ‘President Buhari, Tinubu exchange Sallah greetings,’ Shehu revealed that Buhari expressed his readiness to welcome Tinubu to the State House as President on May 29.
On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election.
The former Lagos governor polled 8,794,726 votes to beat the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar, who garnered 6,984,520 votes and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.
The call came hours before the President asked Nigerians hurt by his policies for a pardon.
Speaking at a State House banquet with selected members of the Federal Capital Territory community, Buhari described himself as a lucky and fulfilled politician, having served as military governor of Borno State in 1976, Minister of Petroleum Resources in the same year and one-time Head of State (1983 – 1985).
He thanked citizens for “tolerating” his eight-year regime, which began when he was sworn in as President on May 29, 2015.
“I think this is a very good coincidence for me to say goodbye to you and thank you for tolerating me for more than seven and a half years.
“I honestly consider myself very lucky; I was made a governor, minister of petroleum, head of state in uniform, then after three attempts, God, through technology and PVC, I became president. I think God has given me an incredible opportunity to serve as your president. And I thank God for that.
“So, please, whoever feels I have done wrong to them, we are all humans. There is no doubt I hurt some people and I wish you will pardon me. And those that think that I have hurt them so much, please pardon me,” said the president.
